Tories offer DUP £1bn bribe for Northern Ireland

Theresa May has caved in to demands from the DUP for yet more English money to subsidise their spending in return for supporting the Tories at Westminster.

Labour politicians up in arms about the £1bn bribe have short memories since it was a Labour government that introduced the Barnett Formula which guarantees extra spending per head of population in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compared to England and successive Labour governments have used the Barnett Formula to buy Scottish and Welsh votes.

The Barnett Formula currently gives a subsidy of £1,623 per head to Scotland, £1,180 per head to Wales and £2,347 per head to Northern Ireland. This comes to £4.25bn for Northern Ireland with the Tories now promising to add another £1bn on top to secure the DUP's 10 votes.

A Labour government introduced the Barnett Formula in 1979 which was conceived by Labour MP Joel Barnett (who now campaigns against the use of his own formula). Successive Labour governments have abused the Barnett Formula to buy votes in their former Scottish and Welsh strongholds. The Labour government led by Tony Blair introduced devolution for Scotland and Wales, deliberately leaving out England and successive Labour (and Tory) governments have blocked access to the minutes of the Cabinet meetings where that decision was made. Labour courted the DUP in both 2010 and 2015 with the offer of more money for Northern Ireland. Whilst still a Labour MP, Jack Straw said "the English as a race are not worth saving". Former (Scottish) Labour Lord Chancellor for England, Charlie Falconer, said that there would never be an English Parliament. Labour have consistently fought any attempts to give financial or political equality to England.

The Labour Party never has and never will be the party that represents English interests. The same goes for the British nationalist Conservative Party. UKIP is the only mainstream party that is calling for an English Parliament, the abolition of the Barnett Formula and an end to the institutional discrimination against England. We are the only party that represents English interests and the hypocrites in the Labour Party complaining that the Tories are copying their ideas should hang their heads in shame for their past and present actions.

Reasons to vote Labour #1: Jeremy Corbyn supports the IRA, describing terrorists as "freedom fighters"

Labour's Gorton by-election candidate's links to Islamists and antisemites

Labour's candidate for the Manchester Gorton by-election is a supporter of revolutionary Islam who compares Israel to the Nazis.

Afzal Khan MEP was selected from an all-Asian shortlist to replace the late Gerald Kaufman MP. He has been busy cleaning up his social media accounts but nothing is deleted forever from the internet.

Back in 2014 Khan tweeted that "The Israeli government are acting like Nazi's in Gaza". Whilst the Israeli government certainly has a lot to answer for over their continued illegal occupation of Palestine, there is some way to go before they can be legitimately compared to the genocidal, homicidal Nazis.

In 2015 Khan attended an event to celebrate 36 years since the Iranian revolution which turned a culturally liberal (albeit politically oppressive) kingdom into an ultra-conservative theocracy which places little value on human rights and freedoms. Men and women were segregated at the event, naturally.

Khan is the North West regional organiser for the Muslim Council of Britain, an Islamist group that campaigned to water down anti-terrorism laws, signed a declaration calling for opposition to "Zionism" by any means, funds Islamic literature for primary schools and is believed to have been involved in the Trojan Horse scandal which saw attempts by Islamists to take over and Islamise state schools.

Not only are Khan's morals pretty poor, his record as a politician is somewhat lacking too. Only four of his 72 written questions to the EU Parliament were about the UK, two of which were trying to undermine the British government and one was worrying about the impact of Brexit on the remaining EU member states. Out of 157 motions in the EU Parliament that he has put his name to, only two are related to the UK and those are both about the same British citizen jailed in Thailand for co-authoring a critical report on human rights in a Thai company. A worthy cause but 155 of the 157 motions he put his name to have nothing to do with the UK. He spends most of his time as an MEP talking about Africa, the Middle East and South America, what use would he be as Gorton's MP?

UKIP's candidate for the Gorton by-election is Phil Eckersley, a former quantity surveyor and now managing director of a care company specialising in caring for people suffering from dementia. Phil contested the Gorton seat at the last election where he finished in 4th place with 8.2% of the vote in an election that saw just 674 votes separate him from the 2nd placed Green. In that election, Gerald Kaufman increased his majority by 17% to take 67.1% of the vote but it was a victory for the immensely popular and well respected Gerald Kaufman, not the Labour Party. Afzal Khan with his Islamist links and anti-Israeli overtones won't command anywhere near the support his predecessor did. Overturning a 34k vote, 57.3% majority is a big ask but anything can happen in politics.

Pendle run by LibLabBNP coalition

Pendle Labour and Lib Dems have done a deal with the BNP to get a majority on the council.

The sole BNP councillor on Pendle Council is supporting the LibLab coalition in exchange for a regeneration programme in his ward.

The Conservatives are understandably peeved and have written to Jeremy Corbyn to ask him to act against this coalition of the left.

Dudley UKIP councillors defeat Labour and Conservative budgets

Dudley's UKIP councillors successfully challenged both a Labour and Conservative budget last night despite having just eight of the 72 seats on the council.

Labour councillors wanted to put up council tax by 4.99% and the Conservatives 3.99% with a guaranteed rise in council tax next year. UKIP put forward an amendment to the Conservative budget which would ringfence 3% of the 3.99% for social care and bring in an outside company to handle the procurement who would be paid a percentage of the cost savings they make.

UKIP is generally committed to freezing or cutting council tax but you can't win every fight and clearly eight UKIP councillors are massively outnumbered so this compromise is a good one in the circumstances. There's a risk of an ATOS-style shambles without proper scrutiny so the success of the arrangement will come down to whether council officers manage their supplier effectively or not but this is the best outcome the group could have hoped for.

Commenting on the meeting, Cllr Dean Perks said:

We voted against both but had to set a budget legally or the government would step in and we'd be stripped to basics. In the end UKIP put an amendment to the Tory option so we got 3% adult social care ring fenced increase and 0.99% general increase, total 3.99%.

But in addition UKIP moved to bring in an outside professional company to deal with procurement which will save £millions securing front line services and avoiding an increase in general fund next year through prudent management of purchasing. In a nut shell we will save 5% from the £385million annual spend.

Birmingham Labour councillor resigns after abusing his position to bully school

Birmingham Labour councillor, Waseem Zaffar, has resigned as cabinet member for Transparency, Openness & Equality due to media attention over his misconduct.

Cllr Zaffar bullied teachers at St Clare's Catholic School into allowing a 4 year old girl to wear a hijab despite it being against the school's dress code. He publicly criticised the school on social media and admitted to telling the head teacher at the school that their uniform policy breached the Equalities Act despite that claim being false.

Despite his cabinet brief, Cllr Zaffar was anything but transparent or open, failing to mention that the 4 year old was one of his relatives.

The council has been criticised by Dame Casey who is heading up the British government's report on community cohesion and integration who said it has echoes of the Trojan Horse scandal where Islamist teachers and parents were discovered trying to take over and Islamise schools in the city. She has written to the leader of the council asking him why Cllr Zaffar thought bullying the school over their uniform policy was appropriate.

St Clare's has a strict uniform policy and as a faith school is exempt from regulations requiring accommodation of religious clothing.

Three Labour councillors in Sandwell suspended for intimidating pensioner

Three Labour councillors in Sandwell have been suspended from the Labour Party for intimidating a pensioner in a public meeting.

Cllrs Ian and Olwen Jones and Cllr Bob Lloyd were found by a disciplinary hearing to have intimidated a pensioner at a meeting of the Wednesbury Celebrates community group last summer. Cllr Ian Jones has only recently been readmitted to the Labour group after the High Court ruled that his last suspension - related to allegations of corrupt practices at Sandwell - was unlawful.

The Jones' have been suspended for four months and Cllr Lloyd for three months. They will now get to experience life as a councillor outside of Labour's closed shop.

Plymouth Labour councillor suspended for making Nazi salute

A Plymouth Labour councillor has been suspended after making a Nazi salute to UKIP and Conservative councillors in a council meeting last night.

Cllr Jonny Morris has apologised for what he himself describes as "an inappropriate and offensive gesture" but not before someone reported it to the police as a hate crime. Devon & Cornwall Police have confirmed they are investigating it as a potential public order offence.

Cllr Morris has been suspended from the Labour group on Plymouth City Council pending an investigation into his conduct.

Thanet Labour council apologises for selling charity donations for her election campaign

A Thanet Labour councillor and magistrate has been forced to apologise after it emerged that she had sold charitable donations to fund her election campaign.

Cosmetics company Lush gave 100 tons of cosmetics and beauty products to a charity called the Kindness Offensive to be given directly to the homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged. They expressly forbade the sale of any of the products, even if the proceeds were to go to charity. Some of the cosmetics were handed over to a charity shop called Food for All who then handed them over to Cllr Karen Constantine to sell for Labour Party funds.

Charities are not allowed to make political donations and candidates are not allowed to accept them. They have both broken the law.

Cllr Constantine says that when she found out that she had unwittingly sold products donated to charity she made arrangements for the proceeds to be donated to a charity. She claims that she didn't know they were intended for charity and not the Labour Party but she collected them from a charity shop. A charity shop. What else were they going to be in a charity shop other than donations to charity?

Cllr Constantine's apology is meaningless when she continues to claim that she didn't know donations to a charity shop were donations to charity. If she won't admit that she basically stole from charity - at the very least in a moral sense, if not a legal one - then she clearly isn't sorry. She should do the honourable thing and resign. The Charity Commission also need to launch an investigation into the political activities being carried out at this charity and ban any trustees involved in the illegal political donations or any other political campaigning.

Cllr Constantine (left) with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demonstrating their support for the Socialist Workers Party's militant Stand Up toe Racism group

Sir Gerald Kaufman MP dies

The father of the house, Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman, has died aged 86.

After a number of failed attempts Kaufman was elected as MP for Manchester Ardwick in 1970 and held the seat until it was abolished in 1983 when he won the seat of Manchester Gorton.

Kaufman was a member of the Labour Jewish movement but was a vociferous critic of the Israeli government's occupation of Palestine and its treatment of Palestinians.

Labour has a massive majority in Manchester Gorton with Kaufman increasing his vote share by 17% at the last election. This big Remain-voting seat will be way down UKIP's target list but with local and mayoral elections being held in May there is likely to be a very long by-election campaign to educate voters.

Luton Labour councillor suspended for praising Hitler and calling for Iran to nuke Israel

A Labour councillor in Luton has been suspended after comments glorifying Hitler and calling for Iran to wipe Israel off the map were found on her Twitter account.

Aysegul Gurbuz's tweets date back to 2011, before she was elected as a councillor. She described Hitler as the "greatest man in history" and called for Iran to build a nuclear weapon to "wipe Israel off the map".

Cllr Gurbuz claims that other people had access to her Twitter account and that one of them must have posted the tweets in her name but has resigned nonetheless.

Stoke Labour activist illegally exerting spiritual influence over Muslims

The Chairman of Hanley Park Residents Association and Stoke Labour activist, Navid Hussain, has been illegally exerting spiritual influence over Stoke's Muslim community to secure their votes for Gareth Snell.

Hussain has been sending text messages, Whatsapp messages and posting messages on Facebook telling Muslims that they will go to hell if they vote for UKIP which he describes as an anti-Muslim racist party.

This has echoes of Tower Hamlets where the Tower Hamlets First party told voters they would go to hell if they didn't vote for their man. They won the elections but a special election court removed their mayor and councillors, banned them from standing for election again and struck the party off the register. If Labour sociopath Gareth Snell wins then Hussain's actions are grounds to annul the election and force it to be re-run.

YouGov poll finds Labour now has less working class support than UKIP

A YouGov poll for the Times has revealed that UKIP has more support amongst working class voters than Labour and is only 10% behind Labour overall.

The poll highlights just how far Labour's support has declined nationally with the Tories the most popular party amongst working class voters with 39% supporting them. UKIP is the second most popular party amongst working class voters on 23% and Labour trailing in third with 20% support. Overall, the Tories are sitting on 40% for a general election with Labour trailing a distant second on 24% and UKIP in third on 14%.

It gets worse for Labour because even though Jeremy Corbyn is hugely unpopular with voters, experts believe that replacing him would do very little to shore up the Labour vote with the party fatally divided between the hard left Corbynites and the middle class Blairites who want social justice for all as long as someone else is paying for it.

Paul Nuttall forced out of his Stoke home by Labour activists

Paul Nuttall has been forced to move out of his Stoke home for safety reasons after being targeted by warm and cuddly Labour supporters trying to break into his house, wandering around his garden, taking pictures through the windows and posting hate mail through his letterbox.

The police have taken their usual stance toward the safety of UKIP representatives targeted by fascists which is to pretend there isn't a problem. Nigel Farage asked for a police security detail after a series of physical and verbal attacks on him, his family and his home but was refused. Now Paul Nuttall is being threatened the police won't even step up patrols in the area.

It's sad that Labour supporters are so intolerant and predisposed to violence and harassment but until they learn how to behave like decent human beings, the police need to step up and protect their victims.

One of Labour's biggest donors could be thrown out of party for bankrolling Labour Leave

One of Labour's biggest donors could be thrown out of the party after funding public meetings during the EU referendum campaign which gave a platform with UKIP.

John Mills, the owner of JML and Dame Tessa Jowell's brother-in-law, was the man behind the Labour Leave campaign which put money into public meetings that had speakers from the Conservatives and UKIP as well as Labour and others. But a Labour MEP is claiming that he has broken the party's rules and wants him kicked out of the party over it.

Mills is the Labour Party's biggest donor if you exclude the millions of pounds of taxpayers' money laundered through the trade unions. He donated £1.65m of JML shares to the party in 2013.

Can't have Labour members supporting a working class revolution, can we?

Orthodox Jewish UKIP candidate racially abused by Labour supporters in Stoke

UKIP's candidate for Great Manchester Mayor was the victim of racial abuse whilst campaigning in Stoke at the weekend.

Ultra-Orthodox Jew, Schneur Odze, was verbally abused by Labour supporters outside a public meeting with Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall at the Victoria Hall in Hanley with one of the anti-UKIP protesters telling him to go back home.

Odze told Westmonster "I'm not sure where they want be to go, Salford of Hackney".

Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council officially rebuked for breaking solicitor accounting rules

The Labour leader of Telford & Wrekin Council has received an official rebuke from the Solicitors Regulation Authority after a firm he helped manage spent money that should have been held in client accounts.

Cllr Shaun Davies was one of three managers at now-closed Cooper Rollason LLB when the firm got into financial problems in 2004. They used money that should have been held in protected client accounts to cover office costs which is a breach of SRA rules. Cllr Davies was the firm's compliance officer at the time and responsible for stopping such breaches occurring.

Davies and the other two partners were give the rebuke by the SRA which is a permanent mark on their record and ordered to pay £200 costs but escaped a more serious referral to the Solicitors Disciplinary Panel which could have seen them struck off and receive an unlimited fine.

Labour using left wing hate groups to circumvent election spending limits in Stoke

The Labour Party is distributing leaflets in Stoke produced by trade union-backed anti-UKIP hate groups along with their own Labour leaflets.

Social media is awash with pictures of Labour councillors and activists boasting about delivering the leaflets produced and paid for by Hope not Hate and NorSCARF alongside their own to get around election spending limits.

NorSCARF is run by Labour councillor Chris Spence who sits on the same council as Labour's candidate, Gareth Snell and tax dodging Hope not Hate's former general secretary, Ruth Smeeth, is Labour MP for the neighbouring Stoke North constituency. The leaflets are clearly part of Labour's official campaign but you can bet they won't make it onto their expenses return, allowing Labour to spend tens of thousands of pounds more than the legal spending limit.

Labour Party loses 7,000 members over Corbyn's Brexit Bill whip

Around 7,000 Labour Party members are believed to have resigned from the party last week over Jeremy Corbyn's decision to whip his MPs to vote for the Brexit Bill.

Despite Labour MPs being under a three line whip 47 of their MPs voted against the bill to give Theresa May the go-ahead to trigger Article 50 negotiations, including shadow cabinet members and the whips themselves. And there is still no punishment for the ultimate party political "crime" of defying a three line whip from their increasingly weak and ineffective leader.

It looks like having joined Labour for a quid to vote for Corbyn as leader the kids and nutters have either lost interest or patience in their messiah.

Jeremy Corbyn with his "freedom fighter" IRA friend, Gerry Adams

Desperate Labour wasting police time in Stoke over Paul Nuttall's nomination papers

Desperate Labour campaigners have reported Paul Nuttall to the police and the Electoral Commission, claiming that he has lied on his nomination papers for the Stoke Central by-election by putting a house in Stoke as his address.

Paul has rented a property in Stoke which he is living in for the duration of the election campaign and beyond. He has made it clear that when he is Stoke Central's new MP it will continue to be his home. But Labour are claiming that because he hadn't spent the night or got furniture in the house it couldn't be his home and have made a complaint.

Paul moved into the house in Stoke on the day he submitted his nomination papers and has released a photograph showing that he spent that night in the house, sleeping on a mattress in one of the bedrooms. The council certainly won't be pro-rating his council tax to the hour he went to bed, he will be deemed to have moved in to that house that day so why should it be any different for his nomination papers? Your birthday doesn't start at the time you were born, your phone line rental doesn't start from the hour your phone is connected, your car tax isn't calculated from the minute you click the button on the DVLA website and your permanent address doesn't only become your permanent address when you've had a sofa delivered.

There is nothing in the Representation of the People Act that defines what a permanent address is for a candidate which is what the police and Electoral Commission will be interested in and Labour will know this (they've had plenty of experience of candidates breaking electoral law, after all). They are wasting police time and the Electoral Commission's time with a vexatious complaint for political gain.

Paul Nuttall at his house in Stoke on the day his nomination papers were submitted, courtesy of Guido